A politically correct social drama maintained in the convention of a social realist film. The film received the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
The work of Aleksander Ford, an artist of the pre-war avant-garde, the omnipotent “Red Tsar” of Polish culture in the postwar period and the director of “Krzyżacy”, the biggest Polish box-office success of all time.
A very good role of Tadeusz Janczar, who managed to put life into his otherwise rather conventional and flat character.
An adaptation of Kazimierz Koźniewski’s novel.
Warsaw, 1947. The ruined city is ridden with gangs of juvenile delinquents, young people often crippled by war and marginalized. Five members of one of these groups are put on trial. They get a probation officer, Wojciechowski, who is an experienced physical worker. He finds the boys a job, which gives them a chance to live a new life. The young characters grow up and find their place in the world. However, their past catches up with them. They are found by their former boss, the leader of an anti-communist organization which intends to destroy the newly built W-Z (East-West) route in Warsaw.
Simultaneously, a love motif is presented between one of the film characters, Kazak, and a young draftswoman, Hanka.
